OF Ward's Errata OF THE PROTESTANT BIBLE; A WORK PUBLISHED IN ENGLAND IN THE YEAR 1688; FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXPOSING THE PROTESTANT BIBLE AND PROTESTANT CLERGY TO RIDICULE AND CONTEMPT; AND RE-PUBLISHED IN DUBLIN FOR THE SAME PURPOSE IN SEPTEMBER, BY THE REV. EDWARD RYAN, D. D. AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF THE EFFECTS OF RELIGION ON PRINTED BY JOHN JONES, 90, BRIDE-STREET, FOR WILLIAM WATSON, 4, CAPEL-STREET. 1808. 1065. e. 1. THE ANALYSIS, &c. On the 24th of laft December I fent the following answer to a very respectable bookfeller of Edinburgh, who was then and has been ever fince afflicted with a rheumatism; which difabled him from attending to bufinefs as ufual. Not knowing of his illness, nor receiving any anfwer from him, I fuppofed the 'tract was in the prefs, and would fpeedily be publifhed. I waited in anxious expectation of it, for 'more than two months; and then wrote to him, with a small degree of afperity, on the delay, requefted him to return me my MSS if it was not in the prefs, and received it in Dublin in about three months after I had fent it. This is my apology to many who were impatient for the following anfwer; and accounts for its not being more elaborate and complete than it is. However, with all its errors and defects, it expofes Ward's book and its patrons 'fufficiently; is likely to prevent another edition of [4] the Errata; and to remain unanfwered: as will appear to any man who fhall wade through the dull analyfis, and read the pointed queries (at the end of this tract) which contain a fummary of my chief arguments, the fubftance of the analyfis. Many laymen as well as clergymen confidered the Errata as an impudent work, which called for an anfwer while a certain man of talents faid, he did not fee how it was to be answered. But as foon as it was known that I was preparing an anfwer, this man hinted, that Ward poffeffed poor abilities: a fecond obferved, that my anfwer must be imperfect in certain parts, as I knew very little of Hebrew ; and a third afferted, that Ward's book must have been ably anfwered by fomebody, feventy or a hundred years ago!! Ward represents the first reformers as despisers of religion; our tranflators of the Bible as knaves; our tranflation of it as full of errors; and our bifhops as mere laymen; without miffion, without fucceffion, without ordination; bishops merely by patent and act of parliament: and maintains that we mifconftrued, altered and corrupted the facred text wilfully and maliciously in about one hundred and thirty inftances. He falfely accufes Luther, Calvin, Zuinglius, Beza and other proteftant reformers of reviling certain parts of Scripture; and profanely making God the author of fin! However, my prefent object is to defend our translation of the Bible; and not to vindicate those reformers: men educated in the popifh church, and who had no hand in tranflating any of our English Bibles. If thofe thofe men committed errors or exceffes, they are imputable to that church; and are no more chargeable on the prefent verfion of our Bible, than the mifconduct of our ancestors three hundred years ago is imputable to us. Ward conftantly imputes the errors of the first tranflators of our Bible to malice or defign: whereas the learned father Simon afcribes them, in fome degree, to a want of fufficient knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek languages. Gregory Martin was juftifiable, in attempting to expofe the errors or fuppofed errors of the English tranflations, which had not been corrected in his time: but' Ward and the prefent popifh clergy had not that excufe. If our English tranflations which had been published in the years 1562, 1577 and 1579, remained uncorrected till the year 1688 when Ward wrote, then would the Errata be a fevere critique on thofe tranflations: but as they were corrected in the year 1683, his book was a libel on himself and on those who should republifh it. He admits, that many errors of our firft verfions were corrected in our prefent Bible; agreeably to the popish conftruction: and furely it was not honourable to infert those errors in his list of Errata; nor decent to impute to the fourth edition of a book the errors of the first three: efpecially as the proteftant Churches never pretended to infallibility. Our tranflators acted with great candour; in correcting many errors, and adopting B 2 Crit. Hicry of the Old Teft. Boɔk 2. Chap. 1. the |